russia's parliament voted in favor of the treaty and is likely to ratify it after new year holiday with the agreement will face further review before the final vote start will slash deployed russian and american nuclear arsenals by a third once ratified by both sides it was actually signed by the two presidents back in april but the u.s. senate only approve the deal wednesday after months of heated debate or he's got a chicky on this following the process. the vote. on this matter on this resolution are seventy one days twenty six nays two thirds of the senate president having voted in the affirmative the resolution of ratification is agreed to. and with this approval russian the u.s. will start the new year with a treaty that has become a symbol of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers i am glad that democrats and republicans came together to approve my top national security priority for this session of congress the new start treaty this is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades and it will make us safer

and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with russia. both states have some very significant reductions underway over the next ten years the countries will cut their nuclear arsenals by a third down to some fifteen hundred fifty deployed warheads on each side the deal also limits the number of delivery vehicles and launchers but even with those cuts both russia and the u.s. will still hold more than ninety percent of the world's nuclear weapons so many agree that the value of the new arms reduction treaty is not just in reductions but i think it's also important to say that the significance of the treaty is much larger than the implications for arms control it really does give a lot of momentum and boost to the broader u.s. russia reset and i think puts obama and medvedev on course to cooperate more closely on a whole host of issues and it may well be that this is seen as a turning point in which the russia us rivalry of the past is finally laid to rest

for weeks and months the president of the united states all members of his administration the military all living former secretary of state and of defense were calling for senators not to ruin this reset opportunity for us we are sure relations and the message did resonate with many senators every senator knows when you're trying to get things done relationships matter and the relationship between the united states and russia has been critical since we fought together in world war two and will be contin and will continue to be so this is an on parallel opportunity to enhance that relationship and to say by signature and by ratification of this treaty that yes the united states of america wants to work with russia despite the huge support the treaty has received on many levels a number of republican senators nearly sabotaged it their actions provoked an avalanche

of criticism from the country's top six. already experts who feared that the treaty could become a victim of political games on capitol hill the arguments the treaty adversaries brought up on the hearings ranged from there's no earthly way to do all of this within the time that we have to even more on substantial ones like we don't have to have this treaty if we don't have a nuclear treaty with the u.k. and one we don't have one with france in the final days of debates on start some republican senators trying to rewrite the deal which would have actually killed it you know they wanted to take out the line in the preamble which makes the connection between offensive and defensive weapons start straitjackets the united states' missile defense capabilities but all of those from the military who testified before the senate said the connection between offensive and defensive weapons is obvious they also maintained it's not started to stir up make the us

weaker the treaty itself explicitly says either side can pull out of it if at some point they deem it threatens their national security and for russians this new start is about balance and equality and they will be in it as long as the u.s. respects that balance in russia the outcome of the vote in the u.s. senate has been well come from many in moscow it's a signal that the u.s. and russia can now open a new page of cooperation with the militants or is it an obama did a really good job under rather difficult conditions if you managed to get this important to listen security for the next few years movie based on this treaty and in general i can say that it's easy for me to work with president obama less because you can really listen to him and he has no he's not impeded by stereotypes of wood and what is probably the most important thing for the politician but will he keep his promise that the russian lawmakers made it clear they had no objections to the treaty advocates of the treaty see the outcome of the vote not so much as obama's victory but

a victory for the whole world which on the one hand is going to have considerably. you were weapons of mass destruction and on the other hand two nuclear superpowers former adversaries actually trusting each other and looking to work in hand to provide their security get a check on our team washington d.c. . leftwing british m.p. jeremy corbyn says the new start treaty clears the path for a new system of international nuclear arms control it's such a huge step and it was one that was predicted to end in failure and so the fact that president obama and president medvedev of come to the agreement and go to through both of their parliamentary systems is a huge step forward and that's got to be a spur so surely the next thing is for all nations to agree not to renew their nuclear weapon systems because most of preparing some kind of upgrade or some kind of renewal and then move on actual nuclear weapons convention that can include all nations in the world including those that are not signatories to a nuclear nonproliferation treaty particularly israel india pakistan north korea

commentary from left wing british m.p. jeremy corbett. in north korea soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month have spoken out publicly about the attack they say the act was in retaliation to seoul holding live fire military exercises in disputed waters fourth south koreans were killed in the shelling of a border island more than a month ago since then the soles been holding more military drills provoking stark warnings from the north younglings military chief says the country will launch a retaliatory nuclear strike if the south stop the provocations it's the worst tension on the peninsula since sixteen years ago when there was war expert in korea glyn ford says a new war is unlikely but a possibility as long as the north continues to feel provoked. the danger is if we have new military exercises at sea because the problem is the land borders very clear the sea border is been arbitrarily and unilaterally established by the south

koreans along the northern limit line which is not recognized even by the united states and the the recent shelling of the of the island. was called squanto poem the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider through their waters the dangerous escalation what you hide is sized korean maneuvers which in disputed waters which led to the north korean response of. the artillery shelling of the island we've now seen massive joint u.s. south korean exercises which clearly are leading to the north koreans upping their . upping their readiness for future for a future attack or military adventures i don't think anyone is intending to start if you want a full scale war at this point but it is a danger with escalation is it gets out of control. which is something we need to

we need to be concerned about for the future but we need to see is some gestures from either side to try and step down maybe an offer from the north koreans for example to give up their with their fuel rods from the only real nuclear reactor and try and ship them to the saddest will be something that might be might allow us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. and also from korea expert going for stay with us here on r t still on your way diplomatic fallout i know why you're wrong is considering breaking off all ties with e.u. ok. but first the aftermath of freezing rain is causing major delays around us ructions at one of moscow's main airports i stopped electricity cables have a ruptured and caused a power outage at domodedovo airport for more on this we go live for correspondent sara forth with more hello sorry so what's happening where you are how bad is the situation. anyway.

today is really a chaotic situation. been affected by the power because. we had the substations the power the. big cables that run the electricity to it and. the double whammy of the weather is well really affecting the traffic coming in today. people walking in the. cases. they were getting the information that they were going to be going anywhere now the . situation as quickly as they. had the domestic. taken out of. the baggage none of the international flights are up and running. what does this mean for planes that are currently in the air.

with the pilots completely. affected they are able. with the pilots in a lot of. places like sharon. said we had the planes. people think they may be taking off. the domestic flights rather than the still running but. people are just waiting for them to get the electricity back on line. or officials give me an occasion as to how long it will take to fix this problem. all we're hearing from the. helping to have the situation in the next hour. to get the power back on to get people checked into getting some of these back and. as you said the weather is affecting the flights that we've had one hundred. fifty flights that are much of that is

having an impact as well with the hate with an emergency generator of the people. on the tables at the moment. the amount of people. waiting to get these flights. if they can get it back online business that really has had quite a big impact today. sorry for reporting live from going to go from domodedovo airport with us. suspected militants have been killed in a counter terror operation in the capital of russia's southern republican dagestan authorities say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group. at the scene of the violence. we're just a couple of meters away from the building where a group of militants has been walk today in the center of. the counter-terrorist operation has started early in the morning when the militants wolfie used to surrender and opened fire the residents of the houses nearby were evacuated and the

whole area has been blocked by the police then the special task force stormed the fled where the militants were hiding as far as we know by now several militants have been killed and the yet to be identified and as the russian and to terrorists kmita says this group could be behind the killings of the police officers in the region and launching a serious altera attacks there was also information that the head of the high school of terror only was among the militants and that he was eliminated this is yet to be confirmed by the officials dug a stunt has been other troublesome weeds and this year with many terror attacks launched by the militants planes derailed and the whole situation in the reason is very troublesome. artie's oxide only hunch over reporting from the scene of a shootout with militants earlier on sunday stay with us here on r t coming up breaking the silence millions of deaf people waste their concerns by paused their only means of communication is still not officially recognized find out why in

a couple of minutes. but first this week the brother of the late polish president claimed the body buried in krakow does not belong to lech kaczynski jaroslav kaczynski his twin brother and also a former prime minister of poland says he's not yet decided whether to have the remains exuberant poland has rejected moscow's report into the april plane crash that killed lech kaczynski and ninety five others investigation said pilot error was to blame still unclear whether warsaw is contesting this point current prime minister polish prime minister donald tusk said the five exam to the accident in southwest russia are unacceptable one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation is flawed aviation expert chris yates says the russian investigation the scene the thorough and no further international inquiry is needed. i think the key is to fool the polar so it is probably quite a significant amount of criticism of the polish air force and in particular the

captain of the cross them to his copilot operates in that across on the. tragic consequence and i think primarily major pulls because. what we see you. draft report that's been postponed we published up i looked this issue since the accident and examined the the cockpit voice recording transcripts and so on and i can't fault any of the conclusions that have been leaked by the russian authorities i don't believe personally that if we bring in. international investigating team into the equation but the findings will be any different to what they are which seems to be the pressure groups to bet in some way shape or form on the pilots and copilots.

to make them attempt to land at some airports where there were no conditions at all too low and too much focus not enough visibility and a lot of pressure being brought on the pilots conspire to cause that accident perspective there from aviation expert christine yates. the signing of a record breaking billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of president medvedev is visit to india this week the russian president also promised to build nuclear power stations to meet the growing needs of the world's second most populous nation artie's charan singh has more on the leaders trip. financial crisis that shaken the group as politicians any colonists will why question to school many can do that the previous quarter dominated by the u.s. and europe is being left behind by the rising giants russia india and china and the deed that struck the president medvedev during the annual summit between russia

here. recently we've done a lot to promote partnership which we know russia and india but yesterday i spent a whole day in new delhi and we held talks with prepared he signed a number of documents on cooperation between our countries. yet in india russia is seen as a friend it is india's number one. offering it cutting edge weaponry such as supple beings and money. and now the countries have signed the biggest defense home directly against history thank you out of billions of dollars and it's a deal to jointly develop a fifth generation fighter aircraft costing nearly one billion dollars apiece the jet to be able to compete with the american dream to do that cost the dying's as much as present the u.s. is the only such technology which should even this it's like the new

aircraft developed by russia and india will have steps each year and overall for the ripley. forces energy is another sector the two countries are the basic together russia has agreed to build more nuclear power stations for india to atomic bombs is already building the country will come online next year and provide much needed energy for india's growing economy i am particularly big. on. coming from cooperation you know the i haven't got checked it reflects the complimentarity. the strength of the. nation is is that it. too to the relationships that countries have with the west you know we can all fall down a dave ways of thinking and various things whether it's

a climate change whether it's on science and technology it's. with the financial up evil we've been witnessing rising economies are being seen as the corner store of a new world order and as we enter the mix the twenty first century both russia and india are embarking on the next phase in the strategic partnership god and seeing. for more on this and many other stories you can always check out our website r.t. dot com here's what's online right now escaping reality and we'll look at afghanistan's efforts to rehabilitate the country's more than one million heroin addicts. and on a lighter note if you want to get married with something a little more sophisticated than eggnog this festive season our team may have the perfect recipe click on over to our.

iran is considering severing ties with the u.k. angered by british criticism of its human rights record tehran says the comments were interference in its domestic affairs islamic republic's lawmakers have already approved a bill to cut diplomatic relations the parliament is due to finalize the decision next week relations between the two countries have deteriorated since claimed that british intelligence was involved in the assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientist last month a london based journalist yvonne ridley says when it comes to basic freedoms the u.k.'s record is also far from perfect. the politicians in iran all quite angry and outraged at this very undiplomatic. blog which is being produced from the british embassy in tehran and you know you wonder what's coming next when you take the high moral ground criticize one country's human rights you should be pretty blameless yourself and unfortunately britain's own human rights record

leaves a lot to be desired if you go on to throw stones at someone else's house you should make sure that your own is in order first iran has its many supporters and it has its money to trucked is. everybody lines up to that particular. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe violence following ivory coast disputed presidential election has forced some forty thousand people to feed neighboring liberia least one hundred seventy have been killed in clashes so far most of those are fleeing are supporters of opposition leader allison a a lot tara the u.n. has recognized as the winner of last month's vote but incumbent leader laurent gbagbo was refusing to step down. palestinians in gaza have fired two rockets into israel hours after israeli aircraft killed two suspected militants in the region the israeli army says militants were trying to

plant explosives near the border israel's foreign minister has said the peace deal with palestinians is impossible under current conditions. a taurus have died more than twenty others injured when their bus collided with a truck in southern egypt a bus was traveling from the southern city of us want to the ancient temple site of abu simbel it hit a truck laden with sand that had broken down and was parked on the side of the road . a series of aftershocks has rocked the new zealand city of christ church months after a powerful earthquake struck the region at least twenty buildings were damaged and power lines were cut the tremor blew out glass and shook the brick work but there were no reports of injuries police cordoned off the central business district and special units are inspecting buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for some time. for deaf people living in russia communication gets no further than their own community although there are an estimated ten million hearing impaired

people living in russia the sign language that they use is not officially recognized or he's diarrhea pushkov are reports on their silence struggle. lawyer was. alex econ to hear the song. from the family. yet he sings it with his hands touching the to have a lot of time that i am. he tells me he speaks the most beautiful language in the world. and so despite living in the world of silence aleksey and his fellow the foremost put on a show full of life and music our. audience appreciates this theatre of deaf actors is an exception in the world mostly hostile to those speaking with

their hands. even the language doesn't officially exist all previous attempts to possible giving official recognition to the russian sign language have failed the problem dates back more than seventy years when sign language was banned from soviet schools in one nine hundred fifty stalin made the situation even worse by calling it not even a sorry date language unlike what some might think it's not a primitive way of conveying basic information it's a fully fledged language capable of expressing just about anything more. gracious. the head of the old russian federation of the deaf believes there are more than ten

million hard of hearing people in the country but no interpreters no t.v. channels almost nothing to ease their interaction with the world that's. he's one of four children the only deaf one in the family. this is the. hard of hearing and his self and protests. they may not hear but their commute and then told king.

so so. yes it was. true those who call. it may be just the music of their hearts. but still not enough to be officially recognized. as. obama. later this hour our team follows a journey of five u.s. war veterans who talk about their changing views on what it means to be a good soldier but first a quick look at the headlines stay with us. did

i kill innocents here a was it a call to a base of course and that's never answered. mamma sharpless costolo me i think of it every day. i steal the flyers fired from the memory. i sold my soul a long time to sear trying. i was ashamed. i was ashamed that i

had been wounded i was ashamed that i had been a hero. i go along arm i go my legs i'm alive. in the mind. but i want to be our nominee hours of march or to the. police or i will go one on ones or i think. that i was a good soldier. but now i'm a soldier on the other side and i think i'm just a good.

seven thirty pm in moscow good to have you with us as we bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on our team washington give stars the green light throwing the ball to russia moscow has already given initial approval to a treaty that will see nuclear arsenals slashed by a third of the deal was signed earlier this year by presidents medvedev and obama and has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough. threats and accusations between north and south

korea souls' ongoing war games close to the border provoke pyongyang into threats of what they call a secret nuclear war and soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month said their actions were also in response to quote provocations. open and thorough aviation experts back moscow's report to the april plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five others but poland refuses to accept the findings more than one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent to moscow detailing where warsaw believes the investigation was flawed. and happening right now freezing rain leading to major delays and flight cancellations at one of moscow's main airports as the russian capital lies covered in a sheet of ice the first few domestic flights have taken off despite a major power cut at domodedovo airport. up next u.s. war veterans talk to r t about their experiences of soldiers and their changing views on the profession it's.